Having won five consecutive Gold Awards and Best Large Town in 2011 and 2012, Anglia in Bloom judges have nominated Wisbech to represent the Anglia Region in the national Britain in Bloom competition.

The town will be up against some strong competition in the Large Town category including Jersey tourist hot spot St Helier and Welsh coastal resort of Colwyn Bay.

Anglia in Bloom judging takes place during July followed by Britain in Bloom judging in August.

Penny Stokes, one of the organisers of Wisbech in Bloom, said: “The competition makes a huge difference to Wisbech, which gets lots of bad press. This is a good news story for the town,

“The work the volunteers do makes the town more attractive and makes people want to visit to look at the gardens.

“If we were able to do well in the Britain in Bloom competition it would be really positive for a town which gets a lot of brickbats.”

Plants growers Delamore have donated 6,000 plug plants to Wisbech in Bloom volunteers to enable them to plant colourful baskets and containers in the town centre.

Delamore’s young apprentices will also be working alongside Wisbech in Bloom volunteers this spring, helping to design and plant a section of bank alongside vacant land on the Nene Waterfront.

Britain in Bloom was set up in 1964 as a tourist initiative but since the Royal Horticultural Society took over in 2002 it has grown into one of Europe’s largest community gardening and environmental campaigns involving villages, towns, cities, urban communities and neighbourhood groups across the country.

One crew and rescue vehicle from Dogsthorpe, along with two Lincolnshire crews from Stamford and Market Deeping, were called to a road traffic collision on the A1 southbound between Carpenters Lodge and Wansford.